Too much of Christian culture is oriented towards the limelight. The goal of the young Christian is to one day be in the lights on the stage too - to be known, noticed, celebrated, lauded as spiritual, wise and powerful. Somehow we have made it if we are in the limelight before people – ideally lots of them. If we are honest there is some (or a lot) of that in us too.

But Jesus and people throughout church history who were close to God and were used powerfully by him consistently chose to head the other way – to avoid the limelight!

I don’t mean skepticism of God per se as much as skepticism of the idea that we can in fact know things spiritually about God and what is true and right through the Bible and the practices of the spiritual life. Doubts can creep in about the spiritual life because modern Western society concludes that we (unlike our biblical heroes) can’t know truth or God spiritually. This is important because whether we take our spiritual journey wide-eyed and full of wonder or squinty-eyed and skeptical will clearly impact on its fruitfulness in helping us truly find God.